Queens of the Stone Age
Lullabies To Paralyze

THE REVIEW

They've been a pain in the ass for quite some time: Queens of the Stone Age are without Nick Olivieri, who knows if Josh Homme will be able to make albums as good as before, will they break up, won't they break up, will Flea play on the next album (?!) ... in short, the usual babble of rumors and gossip. But these vanish suddenly once you start listening to this new work by QOSTA.

The opener "This Lullaby" is a real acoustic lullaby sung by the always great Mark Lanegan over the soft (and simple) guitar embroidery by Josh, a strange but original way to open a rock album. Already from the second track, we enter more stoner and nurock territories (see the fine "Everyone Knows That You're Insane") and reach what are the two masterpieces of the album, "Tangled Up In Plaid," with its riff reminiscent of the "No One Knows" era, and "Burn The Witch" (ft. Billy Gibson), two mini-suites that seem like an updated and corrected version of Pink Floyd. And it's here that the amazement is born: in this album, QOSTA play at being psychedelic, they take the visual and rock side of Waters and Gilmour and make it their own, playing with it at will. Sure, the more rock songs are not missing (the first two singles "In My Head" with its catchy chorus and the nice riff of "Little Sister"), but the rest of the album fills inside with its warm and vintage sound and long musical digressions.

What can I say? It's always a pleasure to listen to a QOSTA CD, with or without Olivieri.